So, I've been doing some more pondering…..……ok, since I was 17, I personally have struggled with and dealt with an, at times, debilitating anxiety disorder. There are MANY things I have learned and I know there are so many reasons for why it happened in my life. One obvious reason would be because my obsessive compulsive disorder was one of the major factors in bringing my husband and I together.(He also has OCD, and wow, can it be a crazy life sometimes..:/)
So, after dealing with and attempting to know how to manage this sickness there is A LOT of things I have come away learning. One, and probably the most important lesson I have learn and come to understand is, I know, I, as a human being have limits. I know that there are things that are harder for me and after a whole lot of attempting, I have learned that there are a lot of things that I now need to expect are going to be tougher to accomplish. And after much struggling with accepting this concept I finally have come to the realization that, since I know God is so much greater then I will ever be even at my best, I can accept my inability and I am okay.
In our culture though I believe the enemy again, has unfortunately used our own prideful sinful nature against us, and the slyly allowed the concept of ACCOMPLISHMENT, SELF RELIANCE AND MOST OF ALL SELF SUFFICIENCY to overwhelm our society, and falsely give us the belief that there’s NOTHING we can’t do. And therefore no one ever welcomes the notion of embracing our inability. Now, yes, with God all things ARE possible, but there has to be a balance of thinking we’re good for nothing and can’t accomplish anything and believing we are unstoppable and capable of any and everything.
The enemy’s main objective is to do anything that would distract us and take our attention off of God, and what could be more effective then, fooling us into believing that, we, as an individual, ARE totally capable and know, on our own, thank you very much, what is best for ourselves and our world?
Now, once again, you have to bring the balance factor in, you can never go to one extreme or the other. But, at the moment I am watching the news and the earthquake has just happened in Japan. There are riots continuing in the Middle East countries and Americans in Wisconsin are going crazy protesting the anti- union bill. CHAOS.
As I watch the news all I see are uncertain, fearful humans running around everywhere in a panic, as they should be. Because if we, as humans, believe there is going to be one individual person who would be able to discover and formulate a plan that will bring the world peace and a much waited stability, then yes, they SHOULD be running around in a tizzy, cause we are not going to find anyone. Yes, God gives guidance and wisdom to His people and will speak his message through leaders, but looking to one person(president, any world leader) for the answers isn’t going to work, cause they may be able to speak well or lead effectively, but they are just one more flawed human like the rest of us.
So, this is my point, as a result of the sickness I’ve dealt with I do not find it hard to believe and understand that I am lacking and that I DO NOT know everything. That is very easy for me to accept. But for the average American I don’t think it is. I believe we have totally bought into the idea of us, ourselves, knowing best. And our world will continue to sell to us and push down our throat every new technique, book, or pill to take to improve us and eventually make us the best person we could be.
Now, I believe the Creator wants us to be the best Creation we are able to be, but I also believe that he wants to understand our place and our rank.
In reality, compared to God, we are stupid, defenseless, crowd following sheep, that will naturally self destruct if we do not follow our SHEPHERD. And our SHEPHERD is NOT, thankfully, one of our other fellow sheep cause that would be the “blind leading the blind”. (They are as lost as we are).
Everything and everyone around us, including everyone in our own feeble minded society is telling us to fear. They are uncertain of so many things and dieing to find THE ANSWER, but unless they concede and acknowledge their insufficiency and submit to an all knowing, loving God, their anxiety and uneasiness will be eternal. But I personally am so grateful that I do know the One, who DOES know all the answers and He HAS ALREADY seen the future and its outcome, and despite all He has seen, the main point the wants me to understand is that, yes, there will be trouble but He’s fully aware of all of it, and he STILL directs us to have peace.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The "American Dream"??
A friend of mine just recently made the statement, that after feeling worn thin and stressed out by life she wondered where was the “real” life she dreamed of as a child? And it got me thinking of a lot of different things I’ve had going on in the back of my head for awhile.
It is easy to say that our society is messed up, any person who has grown up in church knows the whole story of how in the beginning, we on earth had it good. We had a loving, providential God that loved us enough to give us the “ability” to make choices for ourselves in giving us “free will”. Now, the idiot “enemy” is all too familiar with this concept of free will and will, although unknowingly to us, use it against us. He saw Eve and played the “but you could have so much more” card on her and continued to convince her to eat the fruit God had specifically said not to and BOOM, similar to what you witness on game shows and television programs all the time, we as well as Eve, end up being unsatisfied with what we have and give into greediness. She had it perfect, but the enemy knew our human nature weakness and skillfully used it against Eve. The perfect world and opportunity we had was gone. We lost it all by listening to the enemy and somehow thinking we knew better then God.
So, if that was so far back when life was most likely, much less cluttered and less complicated, imagine the state of the world we live in now? Families upon families reaching, stretching, sacrificing and whole heartedly pursuing that illusive and coveted “American Dream”. This isn’t some
controversial topic. Americans and probably even more so those living outside America, strive to someday finally achieve whatever the American society determines is the ultimate form of success and will give almost anything to have it.
So my next question is, “What is considered success?” It’s beyond obvious the aspects that media and television view as marks of success. And, I’m not saying those things are wrong necessarily. I believe when contemplating this subject you have to find a realistic balance. You don’t go to one extreme or the other. But, really, as a Believer, in our present day society what should we consider “success” and how do we pursue it correctly? I know I could dig deep down into the Scriptures and find verse upon verse giving statements of resisting materialistic things and choosing the narrow path and all the contrasts between pursuing God’s Kingdom compared to the pleasures of this world. But there is another way I recently started to look at it.
Recently on CBN they were doing a week long special interviewing people who died, experienced heaven and then came back to earth. I’m a visual person, and as they described it in my mind’s eye I could envision all of it, I could FEEL and imagine it, and I wanted to BE there. As they describe it more and more my heart fills to the brim and I just think of how I can’t wait! But in each interview the person states that after experiencing what heaven is like, THEN coming back here to their earthly home, their view point on matters here on earth drastically change. They’ve seen what lies beyond our temporary home. I thought, “Man, if only all of us could be able to go through an experience like that, we would, no doubt, see things through a different light. If we had that personal experience it could change forever what we make a priority in our lives.” And then I realized that Jesus Himself could be considered One of those who has experienced both places, He knows both sides. And knowing that there was another place more glorious then our minds could even attempt to conceive, how then, did He live His life while He was here on earth? What did He pursue and what did He consider to be “successful”?
Could it be that our definition of success and God’s definition of success are two very different things? Could it be true that, despite living in a greedy, materialistic, selfish world God views a “real” life and real success as the concept He spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount? Uh, cause if that’s the case, those two seem starkly different from one another??
And, unfortunately, I believe pursuing the “American Dream” has gotten so out of hand that, just like naive Eve, we, as Believers have fallen for and are so accustomed to following the crowd, that we assume it’s normal and to be expected, and mindlessly follow the society norm. And the concept of just trying to be “normal” has become such a huge chore that the enemy doesn’t need to use anything else but the expected pressure of society to distract and prevent us from being a more impacting, effective Believer.
As you can see I have many questions and I am certainly not saying that I have any answers, but there are some things that I feel I DO know. I know, that no matter the situation, God does NOT want us to be dismayed or stressed. He did a whole lot for us in order that, at the least, we would not be have to carry unnecessary burdens, and if you ask me, pursuing the “American Dream” can end up being a very stressful and exhausting task that can take a very serious toll on us. That, along side contemplating the way Jesus, Himself spent His little time He had here on the earth, it makes me wonder if maybe the “real” life that we, as Americans have become accustomed to expecting, isn’t the same “real” life God would wish for us to experience? If this is the case, then how do we as American Believer’s live???
It is easy to say that our society is messed up, any person who has grown up in church knows the whole story of how in the beginning, we on earth had it good. We had a loving, providential God that loved us enough to give us the “ability” to make choices for ourselves in giving us “free will”. Now, the idiot “enemy” is all too familiar with this concept of free will and will, although unknowingly to us, use it against us. He saw Eve and played the “but you could have so much more” card on her and continued to convince her to eat the fruit God had specifically said not to and BOOM, similar to what you witness on game shows and television programs all the time, we as well as Eve, end up being unsatisfied with what we have and give into greediness. She had it perfect, but the enemy knew our human nature weakness and skillfully used it against Eve. The perfect world and opportunity we had was gone. We lost it all by listening to the enemy and somehow thinking we knew better then God.
So, if that was so far back when life was most likely, much less cluttered and less complicated, imagine the state of the world we live in now? Families upon families reaching, stretching, sacrificing and whole heartedly pursuing that illusive and coveted “American Dream”. This isn’t some
controversial topic. Americans and probably even more so those living outside America, strive to someday finally achieve whatever the American society determines is the ultimate form of success and will give almost anything to have it.
So my next question is, “What is considered success?” It’s beyond obvious the aspects that media and television view as marks of success. And, I’m not saying those things are wrong necessarily. I believe when contemplating this subject you have to find a realistic balance. You don’t go to one extreme or the other. But, really, as a Believer, in our present day society what should we consider “success” and how do we pursue it correctly? I know I could dig deep down into the Scriptures and find verse upon verse giving statements of resisting materialistic things and choosing the narrow path and all the contrasts between pursuing God’s Kingdom compared to the pleasures of this world. But there is another way I recently started to look at it.
Recently on CBN they were doing a week long special interviewing people who died, experienced heaven and then came back to earth. I’m a visual person, and as they described it in my mind’s eye I could envision all of it, I could FEEL and imagine it, and I wanted to BE there. As they describe it more and more my heart fills to the brim and I just think of how I can’t wait! But in each interview the person states that after experiencing what heaven is like, THEN coming back here to their earthly home, their view point on matters here on earth drastically change. They’ve seen what lies beyond our temporary home. I thought, “Man, if only all of us could be able to go through an experience like that, we would, no doubt, see things through a different light. If we had that personal experience it could change forever what we make a priority in our lives.” And then I realized that Jesus Himself could be considered One of those who has experienced both places, He knows both sides. And knowing that there was another place more glorious then our minds could even attempt to conceive, how then, did He live His life while He was here on earth? What did He pursue and what did He consider to be “successful”?
Could it be that our definition of success and God’s definition of success are two very different things? Could it be true that, despite living in a greedy, materialistic, selfish world God views a “real” life and real success as the concept He spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount? Uh, cause if that’s the case, those two seem starkly different from one another??
And, unfortunately, I believe pursuing the “American Dream” has gotten so out of hand that, just like naive Eve, we, as Believers have fallen for and are so accustomed to following the crowd, that we assume it’s normal and to be expected, and mindlessly follow the society norm. And the concept of just trying to be “normal” has become such a huge chore that the enemy doesn’t need to use anything else but the expected pressure of society to distract and prevent us from being a more impacting, effective Believer.
As you can see I have many questions and I am certainly not saying that I have any answers, but there are some things that I feel I DO know. I know, that no matter the situation, God does NOT want us to be dismayed or stressed. He did a whole lot for us in order that, at the least, we would not be have to carry unnecessary burdens, and if you ask me, pursuing the “American Dream” can end up being a very stressful and exhausting task that can take a very serious toll on us. That, along side contemplating the way Jesus, Himself spent His little time He had here on the earth, it makes me wonder if maybe the “real” life that we, as Americans have become accustomed to expecting, isn’t the same “real” life God would wish for us to experience? If this is the case, then how do we as American Believer’s live???
Friday, December 3, 2010
Ok, so maybe right now I like this blogging thing, who knows how long it will last...;)
Ok, well, it didn't take me long to gravitate back to the blog page, maybe around 10 hours to be exact.:)But my first entry was more or less getting an entry out there, cause knowing myself, I will talk, and think TOO MUCH about the pros and the cons, analyze, question myself, mention it to others, get their opinion on the matter and by the time I finally decide it's been 12 years(exaggeration) and no one even blogs anymore??..=), so though I didn't have much to say at all, I bit the bullet(so many phrases I've heard in conversations, but don't know if I am using them correctly, but I'm okay with that:) ), tried to figure out a layout and photos I liked and typed out a bunch of nonsensical things then, practically closed my eyes and pressed the "publish" key(I had to check to see where the the publish key was before I closed my eyes, otherwise I might be pushing,"delete", or... something......k, I didn't really close my eyes, trying to just provide imagery..:))and BOOM again, my ramblings were published for all to see.=)(Yay for all of you who read this though! I think there may be maybe 3 of you:), again, I'm fine with that:))But the main concept I want anyone to come away with from my first post is that I do NOT take myself TOO seriously.I have convictions and ways I see things, but I know that, as each human is a unique creation, we all view and feel different ways about things.And I don't totally believe any one human is completely correct in any one opinion they personally believe(except foundational Christian truths like the Apostle's Creed or something), because we are ALL flawed humans. Now don't get wigged out and think I'm being radical, that's not me:).I believe God reveals and speaks through humans, but any and everything one PERSON says is not 100% correct every time, unless they are Jesus Himself. What the Bible says is 100% correct EVERY time, but even that can be interpreted in so many different ways by so many different people.So, all this to say that I know that MY opinion and outlook on things are only that, MINE, the way through God's guidance He has revealed things to ME. So I know the concepts I have are not the final WORD, they are just MY personal view point on things, and every person goes through their own personal experiences, so we can, as a body of Christ, all see and empathize with different experiences people have been through cause we ourselves have been there and experienced it and God has revealed Himself individually and personally to us,so that we can use to help others.This thought has been a foundation for me through out my life and anything I've been through.
My first foundational concept that I cling to and trust with all my heart is my life verse,which I claimed as my own(You can use it too, if you want,.. I guess..;))when I was at BIYOCA camp in junior high, Romans 8:28-"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" and then when I've faced and struggled through those "things' God is working for the good of me", I then rely on the verse from II Corinthians 1:3,4-"Praise be to God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in ALL our troubles so we ourselves can comfort OTHERS with the comfort WE OURSELVES have RECEIVED FROM CHRIST." So personally this is how God has revealed some of HIS truths to me.All this being said, since we all are different individuals with our own personal relationship and interactions with Christ, what are some of the individual lesson God has revealed to you so far in your life?:)
Well, once again, thanks for patiently bumbling along with me through my typing run ons:). Thanks, God bless!:)
Sarah
(I'm going to close my eyes and push "publish" again now, ...ha, just kidding,...kinda....:) )
My first foundational concept that I cling to and trust with all my heart is my life verse,which I claimed as my own(You can use it too, if you want,.. I guess..;))when I was at BIYOCA camp in junior high, Romans 8:28-"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" and then when I've faced and struggled through those "things' God is working for the good of me", I then rely on the verse from II Corinthians 1:3,4-"Praise be to God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in ALL our troubles so we ourselves can comfort OTHERS with the comfort WE OURSELVES have RECEIVED FROM CHRIST." So personally this is how God has revealed some of HIS truths to me.All this being said, since we all are different individuals with our own personal relationship and interactions with Christ, what are some of the individual lesson God has revealed to you so far in your life?:)
Well, once again, thanks for patiently bumbling along with me through my typing run ons:). Thanks, God bless!:)
Sarah
(I'm going to close my eyes and push "publish" again now, ...ha, just kidding,...kinda....:) )
Thursday, December 2, 2010
My first "web" "log":)
So, I finally caved in and decided to give this "blogging" thing a try.To begin with, I don't even know what "blogging" is, and I was going to start making fun of it, poking fun at a dumb sounding made up word that someone came up with until I took the time and "Googled" "blogging"(how pointless and silly do those words look next to each other;)?)and found out that "blog" is a mixture between "web" and "log",and the term was first coined in 1997 by some guy as a joke.(at least that is what Wikipedia told me, but people can make stuff up on there, right?) But I suppose it is not a joke anymore cause obviously EVERYONE uses this term. In fact, I'd say by now 83% of the world's population most likely are doing their own"blog".(I do not think this is true at all,I, myself, am too just making things up.)So, the entire section I just devoted to trying to come up with witty, intellectual, savvy, technologically correct insults on an imaginary word called "blog" was all just completely deleted, so you will never get to read my "blogging" burns in my first "blog", bummer.....But, back to what I had first begun blogging about, I thought to myself,"Sarah, why don't you do something worthwhile when you having trouble sleeping? Why not write sometime pointless, useless opinions and ideas out in a journal form to record your random, unique way of thinking, and why don't you do it on something that you can then publish so anyone with computer can access your ramblings from around the world? Why Sarah? Why not?!?" So BOOM, here I am...so perhaps instead of wasting time when I have trouble getting to sleep by watching Jimmy Fallon introduce a grown man dressed as a Gummy Bear singing in opera the "Gummy Bear" theme song, or being creeped out from watching "Untold Stories of the E.R." or people brutally injured, barely living through horrific situations in "I Shouldn't Be Alive"now I can uselessly and pointlessly ramble on and on about different topics WHILE I watch Jimmy Fallon, "Untold Stories" and "I Shouldn't be Alive", perfect! Now if I could only figure out some way of silencing the tip taping of my keyboard so I don't wake my husband??:)(Just kidding, kinda)......But in all seriousness, the name of my blog is called "Simplicity" and I have found this quality to be a foundation and key when attempting to "navigate through life"(that's from the "IF" Life commercial with Snoopy in it, I didn't think that one up on my own. You will for sure know when I think I've thought something monumental up on my own, I will tell you,:)only to find out it's been thought up already:)) and I will discuss this later when I blog next.(Now all that needs to happen is for me to decide that I want to keep blogging after I've published this post, so..it is a possibility that this may be my first and last post, oh well..:) ) Well, I truly believe that you must feel a sense of enlightenment and gratefulness as you come to the end of this thoughtful, intellectually deep piece of writing that I have obviously put so much effort into, and I know you wait with bated breath(another saying I had to Google,still don't know really what it means, I actually thought it was "baited breath")for what amazing piece of literary genius might come next..but I'm sorry,.... you will have to wait,,:).
Thanks for wasting time with me!;) God bless!=)
Sarah Pyle Cafaro
Thanks for wasting time with me!;) God bless!=)
Sarah Pyle Cafaro
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)